1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to automatic generation of additional content that allow users of electronic information, such as electronic plots, to navigate, find, and understand information.
2. Related Art
Computer Aided design and drafting tools (CAD), such as CAD software, is well-known, and used by architects, engineers, designers, planners, and the like to create precision models and technical illustrations. It is used to create two-dimensional (2-D) drawings, maps, and three-dimensional (3-D) models. CAD software may be used to design buildings, highways and the like. Applications such as MicroStation® products, which are developed by Bentley Systems, Inc., Exton, Pa. U.S.A., and AutoCAD® products, which are developed by Autodesk, Inc., San Rafael, Calif., U.S.A., are typical of such CAD software, which may be used in the engineering, construction, and operations (ECO) marketplace.
Engineering information generated by CAD software consists of large format engineering plans (engineering drawings) and specifications. FIG. 1 is an example of an engineering plan sheet 10. The plan sheet 10 includes a title block 12 that includes identifying information for the plan sheet and one or more drawings 14. Engineering plan sets are collections of plan sheets. There are established methods used in the engineering community for reading plan sets. Typically plan sets contain an index sheet that serves as a table of contents for the set. FIG. 2 is an example of a sheet index 16. The sheet index 16 includes a title block 12 and an index 18 of all plan sheets in the plan set.
FIG. 3 is a magnified view of the index 18. Index 18 typically includes the sheet number, sheet name and descriptive information regarding the sheet. The sheet number, name and descriptive information enable those reading the engineering plans to navigate to the appropriate sheet within the document set just like a Table of Contents in a book enables readers to navigate to the appropriate page, section, or chapter of the book. In addition to sheet indexes there are graphics included on engineering plan sheets that enable readers to navigate from a plan sheet to a drawing detail. The graphics include the sheet number, and detail name where an illustration that provides more detailed information can be found.
An example of a graphic is shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 indicates that a detailed illustration of the information contained in the circle can be found on sheet number 9-9 and the detail name on that sheet is Y. The above are examples of the types of graphical navigation aids that are often found in engineering plan sets. Techniques like the ones described above have been used on engineering drawings for decades, prior to the use of computers to create engineering drawings.
With the advent of CAD tools the collection of graphics that represent the index table or drawing detail references have been constructed using the basic features of the CAD tool. Although each organization using a particular CAD tool may represent detail references using different CAD primitives, most organizations are consistent within its members. In other words, all draftsmen within an organization using the CAD tool represent the detail reference the same way. To ensure consistency most organizations issue CAD standards that their draftsmen are required to comply with.
When the CAD data is published, these navigational aids may be used by a reader to navigate among the plan set. In this context publishing refers to taking the information in a CAD file and presenting the information to a reader in a paper or electronic paper form. The information in an e-paper form may be enhanced by added electronic navigational aids and enhanced content. There are two established methods to enhance the content of published engineering information in e-paper forms.
The first method is to manually edit the published content. This method is offered and prescribed by Adobe. After creating the electronic paper the publisher would use Adobe Acrobat's editing tool to add navigational aids, such as bookmarks, etc. For example, the publisher would use features of Acrobat to establish areas of interest for the “Notes”, “Disclaimer” etc. Bookmarks may be created using other commands in the Acrobat environment. Digital Signature fields and file attachments could also be created using interactive editing features of Acrobat. The disadvantage of this method is that the editing steps must be repeated every time a new version of the plans and specifications are created. The user creates plans and specifications in PDF form. The PDF is then edited to enhance its content. As the design evolves through the project life cycle the same edits would have to be reapplied over and over again each time the CAD data is published. For the life cycle of an asset this could be hundreds or even thousands of times. Consequently, this method is very expensive and time consuming. Other vendors provide solutions similar to Adobe's using other industry standard e-paper formats like Cals and Tiff image data.
The second method is to extend the concepts in the CAD tool to encompass navigational aids and enhance content for publishing purposes. This approach has been deployed by AutoDesk in their 2005 release of AutoCAD. This method avoids the labor intensive redundant editing that is required using the first method. However, this method has its disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that this method cannot be used to enhance published content on older CAD files. The engineering design must be done using AutoCAD 2005. This means that all assets that have been designed using CAD over the last several decades and that are now being renovated cannot realize the benefits of today's publishing technology during their renovation without recreating all of the CAD data using the extended CAD tool.
Navigation and information are easy for professional engineers to determine on visual inspection of a plan set, but difficult to describe programmatically. It is necessary to describe the relationships and associations between selected graphics within and across multiple sheets in a plan set. Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that can overcome the disadvantages of previous systems.